Posts Tagged "Finance and Sustainability"

As a follow-up to the blog “What is a Theory of Change and How Can You Use It?” CompassPoint Project Director Shannon Ellis draws on her experience as a consultant in this strategy area to share which situations are conducive to a successful theory of change process and which aren’t.

What will it take to reset entrenched and ineffective development practices towards a fresher mindset and more effective approach? Our blog this week introduces Fundraising Bright Spots, CompassPoint and Klein & Roth Consulting's just-released report that delves into the experiences and approaches of 16 organizations of various size and type that have established successful and sustainable individual fundraising efforts. What can we learn from these organizations? Read on.

Third Sector New England's newly released report Leadership New England: Essential Shifts for a Thriving Nonprofit Sector, based on responses from more than 1,200 executive directors and board members from the six New England states, issues a wake-up call for the sector—and for funders. Based on the methodology developed by CompassPoint in the Daring to Lead surveys over the past decade, the study assesses the unique challenges nonprofits in the region are facing.

Emily Cohen Raskin is the executive director of O2 Initiatives, where she directs the O2 Sabbatical Award program. In addition to her role with O2 Initiatives, she also serves as Senior Associate at Hirsch & Associates, an advisory firm that works with families, foundations, and corporations to maximize the impact of their philanthropy.

In this excerpt from our forthcoming book, The Sustainability Mindset by Jeanne Bell and Steve Zimmerman (coming fall 2014 from Jossey-Bass), we explore the concept of “right” revenue as a way of analyzing and deepening your understanding of the connection between financial resources and mission impact.

Last September, I wrote a blog about the connection between self-care, sustainability, and impact. Among other things, I discussed how unconscious habits could hinder our self-care and offered some ideas and thoughts on creating an individual practice of self-care. In this post, I want to reflect on what collective self-care practices need to be put into place within our own organizations to support sustainability and deepen impact.

“I would love to give to the Film Festival, but I really have to devote all my giving to my children’s public school.” This sentence, said by a long-time donor in response to a request for funding renewal from a board member at a local Film Festival, helped to start a project called “Nonprofits Talking Taxes."

This became a refrain while in the midst of analyzing the data for our newly released report: UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising (a joint project of CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund). But this is not a report about recruiting and retaining development staff. At least not entirely. This is about a much deeper problem, what we describe as a vicious cycle that many organizations are caught in.

CompassPoint is publicly endorsing California Proposition 30: The Schools and Local Public Safety Act. We believe this initiative is vital to the health and sustainability of nonprofits in California. If Prop 30 fails, funding for elementary, high school and college education; programs that maintain public health and safety; and programs that support California’s more vulnerable populations, including children and the developmentally disabled, will be slashed by $6 billion.

CompassPoint and the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund recently launched a national survey exploring the role of development in nonprofits. The purpose of the research is to better understand the unique challenges of fundraisers and learn more about the issues that are contributing to high turnover in this critical leadership position.